Abstract:

Structured interviews had been conducted to determine the expectations of Mersin from the XVIIth Mediterranean Games. Interviews were held with twenty five top managers who were selected from the list of city protocol, presidents of some non-governmental organizations and managers from the tourism industry. Interviews were executed from January to June, 2013. The findings, obtained from content analysis, showed that the participants had mostly some expectations such as the economic revival, promotion of cultural mosaics of the city, contribution to tourism development, social and cultural interaction. Local enterprises' statements on having no expectations anymore due to being excluded from the preparation process to the games formed one of the major findings of the research. It was also found that the city has some administrative problems such as the lack of accommodation capacity, transportation problems, deficiencies in infrastructure and environment, the lack of cooperation among the organizations and the inability to create a high-level organization in tourism.

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